


Marinette's Abs - Sabrina

by OldAnimeFan



Series: Marinette's Abs [5]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Marinette's abs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 19:03:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8590072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OldAnimeFan/pseuds/OldAnimeFan
Summary: Sabrina starts her karate lessons with Marinette.





	

"You know," said Sabrina, "I never got a chance to punch you in the abs at the beach. Can I now?"

The next lesson after Chloé left, Sabrina returned as she said she would.

"Marinette," Adrien said. "Why don't you work with Sabrina on her basic punches and blocks, and I'll do the more advanced training with Alya. And if you get in trouble teaching her, I'll always be available to help. I think that would be more useful for all of you."

Now I knew a little of how Chloé had felt when she couldn't train with Adrien anymore.

As I had the previous lesson, I started with Sabrina, showing her the basic punches again. But this time, I didn't have Chloé to worry about, so I could devote all my concentration on Sabrina and her training.

I started out with the basics, as Adrien had taught me. However, I taught them to Sabrina in a different order, the order I thought was easiest to do from my experience, and also the most useful. In that one session, I taught her a couple punches, how to throw them properly and then how to block them properly. We practiced them a few times, then I told her about sparring, then we just started in throwing those punches at each other.

This was a lot more fun than the way Adrien had taught me, a few lessons of learning exactly how to throw a punch, then a few lessons on how to block them, and then finally how to use them during sparring. With the way I taught Sabrina, she was actually fighting by the end of that first lesson. And I noticed that she seemed to like that a lot too. I made a mental note to talk with Adrien, to compare my thoughts on my training regimen versus his, so either he could change to my training style or he could show me how his style would be better in the long run.

We sparred the rest of the lesson. Of course, I could easily block Sabrina's punches, having months more experience than she did (and there's Ladybug too), and whenever I threw punches at her, I pulled them so I never made contact, even when her blocks completely missed my punches.

And, there was a continuous dialogue between us (or more properly, a monologue on my part), that went something like this:

"When you throw that type of punch, remember to rotate your wrist for maximum power."

"When you're blocking my punch, remember to sweep your arm across your body so you're knocking my arm to the side. That way, I'll miss you completely."

"That's a good punch on your part. If I hadn't blocked it in time, you would have hit me directly in my...in the middle of my abs, and that hurts!"

Finally, near the end of the lesson, she stopped, panting from the exertion. I was absolutely convinced that Chloé would not have been able to keep up with her, if Chloé had still been in the class.

"When can I punch you?" she said.

"When you're good enough," I replied.

"Yes, but I didn't get the chance to punch your abs at the beach, and you've been blocking all the times I tried to punch them during our sparring today."

Thinking back on our sparring, she had been keeping her punches low, almost all aimed right at my middle. And it wasn't as if I couldn't take a punch or two from her there. After all, if Adrien and especially Alya could punch my abs with their hardest punches and kicks, (but yes, it still hurt), then I guess someone as inexperienced as Sabrina could too. And in the worst case, I would end up on the mats gasping for breath. And it wouldn't be the first time.

"Go ahead," I said sighing, and I put my hands on my hips in a Supergirl/Wonder Woman pose.

Sabrina pulled back her fist straight, waist high, looking straight at my middle. If this had been a real fight, I would have known exactly where she was going to attack based on where she was looking. And her bringing her fist back like that further telegraphed to me that she was about to attack, and where. I'd have to bring those facts up to her at our next session, I realized. I needed to show her how to hide her attacks better, to hide her intended attack target and attack method.

Sabrina drove her fist directly forward, right into the middle of my abs, right at the navel. Of course, I had been expecting it there, so I had tensed up all my abs muscles, so I was able to prevent it from penetrating beyond the outer muscle layer. But as I've always said, it still hurts to be punched in the abs (or anywhere for that matter). But with Sabrina's lack of punching experience and strength, it didn't hurt that much at all, and I was over it in just a couple seconds.

I was proud. Her punching form was just about perfect. She could have rotated her wrist a little more, and maybe she could have held her fist a little tighter, but overall, it was a good, solid punch, with good form. And in only a couple of lessons. I was proud of both her learning ability and of my teaching ability. Of course, as I said, we would have to work on her hiding her intentions.

"That's good," I said. "Now let's work on...Oooof!"

Completely unexpectedly, Sabrina had followed up her right-hand punch with another identical punch with her left. And, of course, I hadn't been prepared for it. However, even with my abs relaxed, with my Ladybug-enhanced abs muscles, her punch hadn't been able to penetrate, at least not too deeply. And it hurt, of course. (It always hurts. Didn't I mention that enough times?) So I almost wasn't ready for her third punch, again with her right fist. But just in time, I swung my arm across my body and blocked that punch, knocking it to one side. And I blocked the immediately-following left one too.

"Sabrina! Stop!" I said.

I saw her expression change as she realized what she had been doing, and she stopped.

"I... I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what happened. I threw that punch to your abs, then the next thing I know, you were telling me to stop. I... I don't know what happened."

"That's all right. No damage done." And of course, I meant it.

We bowed to each other, a courtesy always done at the end of a sparring session, and she left in a little hurry, and a little sheepishly.

The next day, a non-training day, at our first class of the day, she tried her hardest not to look at me. I could only imagine what was going through her head. But once when I caught her glancing in my direction, I gave her a thumbs-up sign, and she actually smiled.

The next lesson, it was as if nothing had happened. We worked on some more punching techniques and on their blocks, and then worked on how to hide your attacks so your opponent wouldn't know that you were about to attack, and where you were about to attack.

We continued sparring, with her throwing punches (we hadn't gotten around to kicks yet), and me blocking them (we hadn't gotten around to counterattacks yet either). Then we traded roles, with me throwing the punches and her blocking them. Then we got into freestyle sparring, with both of us throwing punches whenever we saw an opening, and the other blocking them. Of course, I was giving her many more opportunities to attack than in a real fight, and I still made sure that my punches never landed, even when she wasn't able to block them in time. But I noticed that even now, after only a few lessons, she was getting good at using the proper form, even if she needed more work on her timing and strength. But those would come with time and a lot more practice.

During what was going to be our last sparring session of the day, I noticed that she was losing her form. She would throw a punch, then another one immediately after that, then a third, and then back off, as she had done that one time before. Of course, that left me a lot of perfect openings, most of which I didn't take. But a few times, I pressed the counterattack, throwing a punch or two directly at her. But at these times, she didn't even try to defend, and I had to pull my punches so I didn't hit her. Something was going on, but I didn't know what.

A few minutes later, it escalated. She threw a punch toward my middle, then another one, then another. And this time, she didn't stop. She just kept throwing punches, one after the other with her head down, just punching with all her might. I could block them of course, and I did. But nothing I did would stop her.

"Sabrina, stop!" I said. But this time, it was if she hadn't heard me. She just kept punching away. I backed up to get some distance between us, but she just closed the gap, coming after me. I didn't know how to stop her. Of course, I could continue blocking until she tired out, that is if she did tire out. And I didn't know how long it would take for her to tire out.

I only had one option I could think of at the moment. I counterattacked.

I blocked one of her punches, and before she could throw the next one, I counter-punched, throwing one to her body. But I still pulled it so it wouldn't hurt her, at least not too much. But she would still feel it. That didn't work. It was as if she actually didn't feel it, didn't feel it at all.

I continued, blocking her punches then counter-punching her body, with stronger and stronger punches each time. But again, it was almost as if she had no pain receptors at all in her abdomen. She kept throwing those punches at me aiming at my middle, that I blocked, but she ignored those punches I was throwing back at her middle, that made contact, strong contact.

I didn't know how to stop her.

Adrien did.

Adrien grabbed her arms from behind, completely immobilizing her punching. She struggled and wriggled to get free from his grasp, all the while looking right at me. I knew that if she had been able to break his hold, she would immediately start attacking me again, continuing where she had left off. But Adrien had a strong grasp on her upper arms, strong enough, I knew, that she could not get free.

Slowly, I saw her face change. It calmed down. And with that, her struggles lessened and eventually stopped, enough that Adrien released her.

But as her face calmed down, I could see its expression change to one of, what, pain?

"So," I thought, "she's finally feeling those punches I was giving her.

"But why not before?"

A few times, her punches had gotten through and landed solidly on my abs. But many more times, mine had gotten through to her. But even though I was punching Sabrina hard, I was still controlling my punches, pulling my punches, so I wasn't doing that much damage. But what damage I did do, of course, hurt. (I did say that...)

Sabrina grabbed her middle, gasping slightly. Those punches she didn't seem to feel when I had thrown them, she now felt, delayed. But since it had been a few minutes since I had punched her, of course, she didn't feel them as much as if she had just been punched.

Sabrina grasped her middle and bent over a little, looking up at me. "I... I'm... I'm sorry... Sorry!" was all she said, and then she ran out of the room.

"What were you thinking!" Adrien said, sternly.

"She started it," I said meekly, cringing a little. "She started punching and I didn't know how to stop her."

I was a lousy trainer. I should have realized that I could have just grabbed her arms to stop her, as Adrien had done.

"Marinette," Adrien said, gentler this time, "maybe I should train her next lesson. You can work with Alya. That seemed to work before."

I nodded to him. "Sorry... Again," I said, and left to get dressed for my next class.

The next day, I saw Sabrina in class as she followed Chloé to her desk. As she passed, I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over, out of Chloé's earshot. She squeaked a little and looked very frightened, of me.

"I'm sorry," I said. "And don't worry. Next time, Adrien will be teaching you, if you're still interested in learning, that is.

"And I'll be working with Alya. And she'll be knocking me all over the gym room, like she did last time."

Sabrina smiled at this last, at least a little.

The next karate lesson, I didn't know if Sabrina would even show up. But she got there right on time. I noticed that she seemed a little skittish around me, but she seemed OK again when Adrien started training with her, just as I had, first going over all the moves I had taught her, then sparring with her.

Of course, I had my own problems. I hadn't been training with Alya in the last few lessons as I was training exclusively with Chloé and Sabrina. In fact, I had been concentrating so much on Sabrina's training that I hadn't even been watching Alya and Adrien's training. So when I got back to training with Alya, not only did she have new moves for me to use, but she needed to review all the old ones she had already taught me, that I had forgotten.

There was also another complication. Adrien had been using karate almost exclusively with Alya. And Alya had been using her own style against Adrien. Karate is a structured discipline, with a fixed set of attacks, defenses and moves. But Alya's style was much more flexible, more free-moving. I could never see Adrien using any of Alya's moves in a karate match (and they would probably not even be allowed). But Alya's style? During their training, though Adrien used karate exclusively, Alya's style actually started to include many of the concepts and moves of karate. And that was the complication.

Now, I needed to learn (actually relearn) all the simple moves Alya had taught me in the past, all the more complex moves that she hadn't taught me yet, and now, all the moves that she had invented on her own, those that combined her style with karate. And of course, she wanted to try out all her new moves on me, usually painfully.

This was the most intense and strenuous lesson I had ever had. Except for in the beginning, where Alya showed me quickly all her standard moves, counters and blocks, we sparred. She wanted me to use karate against her, while she used her new moves on me, perfecting them. Then, she wanted me to use her new moves on her, so she could develop counters for them. And finally, she wanted me to use all her new moves against her, full contact. And of course, she would use those same moves against me, again full contact. So by the end of the session, I was beat, physically, mentally and actually. My muscles all ached as they were forced to do those acrobatic moves of Alya's that, I was convinced, a human body was never meant to perform. The human body was never meant to bend that way, or even stretch to those limits.

And the worst part of it? I knew that tomorrow, I would feel every stretch, every bend, every flip, every kick, every punch, every blow landed on my body (I did say that it was full contact, didn't I). I knew I would feel them all, painfully so.

Near the end of the lesson, Adrien motioned for me to come over while Sabrina practiced her punches on the heavy bag. "Marinette, you were right. During our sparring, she lost control as she had with you. She turned into a wildcat, concentrating only on throwing punches at me without even trying to block any that I threw at her. I think that if she wants to continue learning karate, I'm going to have to train her so she doesn't lose control. And from what I've seen with her so far, that will take time. I'm going to have to teach her how not to lose control, and how to keep track of the other fighter, so she can fight effectively. And as I said, that will take time, maybe more time than she has."

"You know," I said, "maybe Sabrina isn't cut out for karate. Maybe she shouldn't even be trying to learn karate."

And as if on cue, Chloé walked into the room.

"Sabrina, I need you!" she said.

"Stop all this fighting stuff and come with me. You'll never be any good at it anyway. And it's not like you'll ever use it for anything."

Yes, that's just like Chloé.

"Come on with me. I've... I've missed you," she said, that last in a subdued tone of voice.

No, that's not at all like Chloé.

"And besides, I have a lot of homework due next Monday, and I have a party all weekend. And I need it all done by Monday morning. So you're already behind."

Yes, that's Chloé, all right.

"And I want you at the party too."

No, that's... Yes, that's...

I'm confused!

"So, are you coming?"

"Sabrina," I said, "you don't have to go with Chloé if you don't want to. You can stay here."

"...with us," I was thinking, but didn't say.

Sabrina glanced at us, then at Chloé. She looked at us, smiling broadly, then turned back toward Chloé and said, "I'm right behind you Chloé. Now where's your homework assignment. I'll get on it right away."

"Maybe that's for the better," I thought, as Sabrina left the room.

Now, I just had to survive the next two days. I could already feel every joint, every muscle starting to open its mouth to scream at me for all the torture Alya had put it through this day. And I knew they would all be screaming their heads off at full volume tomorrow.

I left the exercise room thinking that probably Sabrina had made the right decision. Maybe, in a few years, when she was more mature, and maybe had more control, she could try again at karate.

So, tomorrow was going to be a bad day for me. And probably the day after that too. And hopefully, by the next lesson day, three days away, I would be recovered, at least enough.

And that next lesson was when Alix joined the group.


End file.
